Saint Joseph Catholic Church

“In a world increasingly marked by religious radicalization, division, and conflict, your common witness shows that it is possible to live and work together in peace and harmony, despite cultural and religious differences,” Pope Leo said to a delegation from the organization, during a March 25 audience.

Archbishop Randazzo succeeds Archbishop Filippo Iannone, O. Carm., who was appointed prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops in September.

Born in 1966, Randazzo (bio) was ordained a priest of the Archdiocese of Brisbane in 1991. He studied canon law at Pontifical Gregorian University and worked for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for five years. After becoming a seminary rector, he was named auxiliary bishop of Sydney in 2016 and bishop of Broken Bay in 2019.

Randazzo was also appointed apostolic administrator of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross in 2023. In that capacity, he approved the online publication of the Ordinariate’s Daily Office.

At a press conference during the 2024 session of the synod on synodality, Bishop Randazzo said that “a small minority, with a large powerful Western voice, are obsessed with pushing” the issue of women’s ordination to the diaconate.

At the conclusion of his March 25 general audience, Pope Leo praised the practice of spiritual adoption of unborn children.

“On the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, and just a few days before Holy Week, we embrace Mary’s free ‘yes’ as an example to follow amidst the difficulties of everyday life—to defend all the families of the Middle East and to build a future of peace,” said Catherine Shomali and Hyam Tannous, one an Israeli Christian and the other a Palestinian Christian.

Shomali and Tannous were joined by 15 other women who belong to the organization, which has organized barefoot peace marches in 30 countries. Fifty Ukrainian mothers also met with the Pontiff.

The characteristics, developed in conversation with the bishops who govern the three ordinariates, include

• A Distinctive “Ecclesial Ethos”
• Evangelization Through Beauty
• Direct Outreach to the Poor
• Pastoral Culture
• The Family and the Domestic Church
• Scripture and Preaching
• Spiritual Direction and the Sacrament of Penance

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of His Holiness, encouraged the bishops of France to develop “concrete proposals” that will allow for the generous inclusion of persons attached to the traditional Latin Mass.

Pope Leo XIV reflected on the “interior dimension of vocation, understood as the discovery of God’s free gift that blossoms in the depths of our hearts,” in his message for the 63rd World Day of Prayer for Vocations.

Russia launched a drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Lviv, far from the frontline of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and damaged the historic Bernardine church and monastery.

Continuing his series of Wednesday general audiences on the Second Vatican Council and its documents, Pope Leo XIV emphasized on March 25 that the Church’s hierarchy is divinely instituted and not of human origin.